Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 January 1937 — Page 16

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PAGE 16

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“So | By IDA R. GLEASON |. | ©. 1936, NEA Service, Inc. |

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

AYLIGHT was just tinging the mesa when Coroner Snelling and Sheriff Buckley arrived at the hacienda. Immediately the household came under the jurisdiction of the law. Tante Josephine’s death was due to apoplexy, the coroner said, brought on by some unusual

excitement—probably her nephew’s

death. / The confessed murderer lay where he himself had fallen, a victim of the sacred knife, and when they went to the Indian’s room to accuse him of the crime, they found that he, too, was dead. Heart disease, the coroner decided again. No on» questioned this opinion, though Bob and Pearl John had their own ideas on the subject. The hidden panel in the basement wall seemed to make a deep impression on the two officers. They asked why it had been put there, and what use the family had made of the adobe rooms beyond. Pearl John answered that it had been a whim of the builder of the hacienda, and that no one went into them except om rare occasions. He was careful to explain, however, that the reason the Indian killed Ramon was because he had found him digging in the sacred kiva. This was easily understandable to New Mexico officials, for they knew how strongly the Indians clung to their ancient customs and beliefs, and how much they resented desecration of ‘their pueblos. Pearl John said that the reason for the murder of his older brothers had been robbery, and there had been witnesses present when Ramon had confessed that. After a great deal of interviewing of everyone in the house, and taking copious notes on the case, the officers departed, giving permission for all concerned to leave the mesa if they reported in Santa Fe for the inquest. As the official car chugged away through the snow, - the tension that nad held the household relaxed. Once more the hum of voices sounded from the servants’ quarters and in the front of the house the feeling of relief was evident. 8 " 2 FTER the first shock over Ra- -* mon’s death, Angelique was able to tell how she had found the secret panel. She did not seem in the least abashed over her reason for making Betty a prisoner. “I thought Ramon loved her,” she said simply, as though that was explanation enough for anything. “Now there is nothing left for me, but to go into the church.” Betty ran to her and impulsively grasped her arm. “It came out all right, Angelique,” she said. “I forgive you. I wasn’t hurt.” "Angelique shook her head. “It can never be anything but wrong for me to have sinned that way. I'll % not know a moment’s peace on this earth as long as I have such a thing on my soul. I didn’t hurt you, Betty, but: I hoped you would die when I pushed you through that doorway. I was mad with jealousy and I would gladly have strangled you with my ‘own hands if it would have made Ramon mine alone.” “But there will be other men, Angelique,” Bob began, then paused and looked at Betty. He knew very well that there could be no one else for him. He turned to the darkhaired Spanish girl with pity in his eyes. “Try to believe that Betty and’ I don’t hold anything against you, Angelique.” De Forest took Angelique’s arm and gently led her away. Now that the mystery of the mesa had been explained, he ‘was again the thoughtful, kindly host he had been on Christmas Eve. How long ago that gay party seemed now, andwhat tremendous changes had taken place. since that Christmas snowstorm had held them all prisoners in the hacienda! Bob was thinking of this as he drew Betty into his arms and said softly, “When and if I can get a job, Betty, will you marry me? Some other fellow is probably nailing that big order of tires I started out to get, but there must be something open for a fellow who's desperately in love with the prettiest, most wonderful girl in the world.” 8 8 8 SHE did not answer for so long that Bob tilted up her face, in sudden panic. Then her smile reassured him. “I was afraid you'd put it that way,” she said. “Remember, I. haven't anything either so we might as well join our fabulous fortunes. ‘But why put it on a money basis, Bob? I'd marry you if you never expected to have another. penny as long as you live. Sometimes I've wondered if I ever would meet the right man—all girls do wonder that, you know. I cer- . tainly didn’t dream that Thunder Mesa, was going to give me the finest fellow I'd ever met, and—" “Stop right there before you say something to spoil it,” he interrupted. “Just once in a lifetime a man gets the chance to hear someone else say what he’s always thought about himself, and when it comes from you, darling!” A polite cough from the doorway made them both turn. Pearl John came into the room, hesitatingly. “I know three’s a whole mob with you folks just now, but I've got to talk to you before you leave the mesa.” “Sure thing. Don’t mind us, de . Forest,” Bob answered. “Betty has promised that she’ll take me on as a husband if I can manage to find a living for us both.” * “So I imagined,” Pearl John smiled rather wistfully. “You're luckier than you realize, Bob.” Abruptly he walked over to the fire and put. another log on the blaze. When he came back he had himself in hand once more. “The: job end of it was what I wanted to talk about,” he went on, “I've got the finances and you have practical business experience. Why not join forces?” . “Oh, not on Thunder Mesa!” Betty cried. “I couldn’t—" “I'm leaving this place, too, Betty,” Pearl John told her. “There is no reason now for me to stay. Any‘where that you decide on is okay * with me. I'll just close this .place and let nature do the rest. The winds and the weather will soon attend to its finish. Probably the ancient pueblo walls will outlast the ~ rest, which is really as it should be.” s = ” ETTY looked at them earnestly. ; “Do you remember what Prof. ~ Shaw said when we went to his

roc? About queer things happening that he couldn’t explain, where old -ruins had been disturbed? Maybe that was why all this had to happen here on the mesa.” Meither of them answered, but something in their manner told that they agreed. Bob expressed it when he said, with an effort to make his voice casual. “I guess Thunder Mesa has got the goat of us all Maybe it would be best to give it back to the ghosts:of those old-time Indians who seem to have staked out the first claim to the place.” . The crackling of the fire was the only sound in the room for a minute. Then Bob held out his hand. “That was mighty white of you, Pearl John—your offer, I mean. Maybe we can make a go of it together.” ‘ “Then you're overlooking past differences, Bob?” Pearl John gripped his hand hard. “Things got pretty thick for me for a while. I guess I went off my balance. But don’t call me Pearl John again— I'm going to drop that silly first name from now on. Never did like it, but the rest of the family were strong for tradition and all that.” A MeXican servant entered the room and reported that a car was

ready to take anyone down from the mesa who wanted to leave. 8 » 2 ATER, as they drove away to4 ward the mesa's edge, Betty turned again to wave at John de Forest, standing in the gateway of the patio. The rays of the sun gilded the hacienda. with an unearthly radiance, making it -more dream-like than ever. Even its young owner seemed the figment of some fanciful tale, wherein love and | tragedy and drama were all woven into a fantastic pattern. : Betty turned and slipped her hand under Bob’s resting on the steering wheel. at least, were real, and the car was carrying them at a pid pace straight into the . greatest happiness she had ever imagined. Bob turned and smiled down at her, touching the ‘spray of holly, pinned to™ier .coat. “I'll never get another Christmas present quite like you, sweetheart,” he said.

THE END

King Without a Country

A new serial starts today on . Page Five.,

THE

By Betty

ESTERDAY, in John’s arms, she had been so sure! Ann could not understand why, today, she was trembling uncertainly. She looked into the mirror and saw a slim, pale girl in a cream satin dress. Not a formal wedding gown—not for a second marriage— but she looked .like a bride just the same. A bride with soft, dark curls, and eyes that were blue and frightened.

It was ridiculous to feel this way. It was stupid. She had known John all her life. Before she had known Bill... ...

Downstairs, they were all waiting —waiting for her to come down and be married to John Traynor—but she couldn't bear to keep her thoughts from turning to Bill Leighton. She thought, with beating heart, about that other wedding day. She thought of what Bill had said on the morning after that wedding day. “It was a swell party to start with, wasn't it?” He had laughed happily. (“We'll have swell parties all our lives, won't we?” :

2 = 2

BE marriage couldn’t be just one long party. There was, for one thing, the fact that parties must be paid for. When Ann had wanted to pay the household bills, Bill had handed out money for liquor. At all the parties he gave, she invariably thought about the grocer’s chilly tone when she had charged the refreshments. * Still, she had forgotten such wor-

her. She'd often said to him, “Nothing matters, except that I love you.” It badn’t been true. Other things mattered, too. It mattered when the phone had been taken out. It mattered when her mother had come one morning to find them breakfasting on tea and stale bread. It mattered when she had needed $3 to take her winter coat out of storage and didn’t have it, and had had to’shiver through November. Thus, finally, the marriage had ended in a divorce court. And now, there was John, who was quiet and strong, and had loved her since high-school days. R ” " x

KNOCK sounded on the door. It was her mother. “Almost ready, Ann?” “Almost,” she wanted to cry out, “I can’t marry John! I still love Bill!”- But she didn't, of course. Then, suddenly, there was a commotion on the stairs, and: her sister Sue’s clear voice saying, “You can’t barge in like this, Bill!” Ann sprang to the door and opened it. They faced each other— she and Bill. : “Oh, gosh, Ann!” he cried out. “You're not going to marry him, are you?” His eyes were burning. His fingers bit into her arm. “You can’t!” They . disregarded Ann's shocked relatives. They slipped into her room and closed the door. His arms reached for her at once. “Give me another chance, Ann! Just because I'm broke—just because——" She closed her eyes. Her logical mind stopped working. There was only her racing heart. She let aim Kiss her. When he released her, however, a stab of shame shot through her. John deserved better of her than this, 89 9 o OME away with me, Ann. Chuck this. We'll find a justice of the peace, then go to Vermont for a second honeymoon. My aunt’s not using the cabin. I’ll borrow Al's car.” Bill was holding her close again, his lips against her hair. “It’s been an awful year, darling. I missed you so, I couldn't do anything else. I tried to forget. It was no good.” She said, “You should have tried to get a job, not to drown your sorrows.” For months she had been enraged with him because she had heard he was drinking instead of - working—living, meanwhile, on his friends and relatives. He said, “Now that I've got you again, I'll have one incentive.” She couldn't help thinking that he had had her before, but still had seemed to have little incentive to devote himself to work. “After Vermont, we'll go to Bermuda,” he continued. “Henry Cass is getting up a party to go on his yacht.” She heard herself saying, “I'm tired of using other people’s things. I'd rather have my own.” Six Bill's .arms around her relaxed. He said, with scornful bitterness, “Johnny Traynor’s got his own things, hasn’t he?” “And he’s worked for them,” said Anne. She suddenly flared. “You've got everything it takes—brains and looks and opportunities—but there’s one thing you never had. Spine!”

BRIDE DECIDES

Daily Short Story-

ries when Bill's arms were around |

Ask The Times

Wallace

E broke in, furiously. ‘You still want a money-maker, don’t you?” “I'd like to wear paid-for clothes,” she snapped. “I did the best I could . ..” “Never!” “Thanks,” he said. like old times.” I've wept over you,” she cried out. “I——1I was almost willing to throw Johnny over to go back to you. But you can’t face life as it really is. A few kisses, a few promises, aren’t enough——" “The trouble is, you want to be wrappeg in cotton wool,” he jeered. “That’s not true! If you had ever gone out and fought, I'd have been right behind you, fighting with ycu.

“Sounds quite

But you've thrown away chance afi]

er chance, just so you could have time for parties, for poker, for drinking. Life's not a fraternity week-end, Bill.” “ ‘Life is real, life is earnest’,” he mocked. “You know you only want Johnny for a meal ticket, Ann. You love me——you always have.” | 2 2 =z

HE door was suddenly flung open. Ann's mother stood on the threshold. Behind her, was Johnny Traynor, looking stern, and gray around the mouth. He stepped into the room. |Ann felt numb as the two men looked their hatred at each other. {At last, Johnny spoke. “If wou still love him Ann, it’s all right.” | He made a move to go, but suddenly, Ann was springing to his side. e touched his hand. “You—you don’t care, Johnny?” His eyes looked deeply into hers. “I want you to be happy, Ann. 1! love you enough to give you back to him, if you want to go.” Johnny would give her back to ill, if she wanted to go. Bill had dared to come here on the day of her wedding to another man. In the two years they had been married, he had always been like this—headstrong and arrogant. He thought he could still do with her as he pleased. . . . : | She lifted her chin. |“You’re the man I want, Johnny,” she said, with a new sureness. She looked at Bill pityingly. “I hope you grow up some time, Bill.” Then she turned back to .Johnny. . “Here comes the bride!” THE END 1937,

by _ United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)

(Copyright,

The characters in this story are fictitious.

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 13th St. N. W., Washington, D. C. Legal and medical advice cannot be given, nor can extended research be undertaken.

Q—Where are the pyramids located in Egypt, and how many are there?

A—Those now standing are in Middle Egypt, divided into five groups, containing in all about 40 pyramids. They are located in a district that begins above Dashur and extends by Sakkara and Memphis along the western margin of the valley of the Nile for about 60 or 70 miles, the last or Gizeh group being only a few miles above Cairo. . Q—How is the age of living trees determined? : A—By an increment borer, that cuts a round cylinder about the size of a pencil to the center of the tree, on which the rings can be counted. Q—Who is the author of the novel, “Red Jasmine?” A—Inglis Fletcher, an American. His other book on Africa, “The White Leopard,” was written in 1931.. Q—How did the number of banks in the United States in June, 1936, compare with December, 1932? A—Dec. 31, 1932, there were 18,390 and June 30, 1936, there were 15,752. Q—Can you tell me the age of a blacksnake five feet long? A—Probably it is at least 21 to 3 years old, but growth depends a good deal on the abundance of food. The maximum length of blacksnakes is from 5% to 6 feet. Q—On what ticket was Mayor

La Guardia of New York City elected?

posed by McKee, Republican, and O’Brien, Democrat. . Q—What did the five circles of ‘the Olympic flag represent? A—The five continents; Europe, Africa, America, Asia and Australia. Q—What is Terra alba?

- A—Gypsum, the sulphate of calcium, : : SE

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